Abstract

Simple SummaryWeaning stress often leads to intestinal damage, oxidative imbalance, and impaired growth in piglets. Natural plant-derived feed additives are increasingly explored as alternatives to antibiotics for maintaining intestinal health during this critical period. Chinese yam (Dioscorea oppositifoliaL., YAM) is a traditional edible plant rich in bioactive compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. In this study, dietary supplementation with YAM was evaluated for its ability to alleviate intestinal injury in weaned piglets. The results showed that YAM improved intestinal morphology, enhanced antioxidant capacity, reduced inflammatory responses, and inhibited excessive epithelial apoptosis. Transcriptomic analysis further revealed coordinated changes in genes related to oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis. These findings suggest that dietary YAM may help improve intestinal health and resilience to weaning stress in piglets, supporting its use as a functional feed additive in pig production.Weaning stress is frequently associated with intestinal oxidative stress, inflammatory activation, and epithelial apoptosis in piglets. This study investigated whether dietary supplementation with Chinese yam (Dioscorea oppositifoliaL., YAM) alleviates weaning-induced intestinal injury by modulating the oxidative stress-inflammation-apoptosis axis. 48 weaned piglets were assigned to a control diet or diets supplemented with low (1%)/high (2%) doses of YAM. Intestinal morphology, antioxidant capacity, inflammatory signaling, and apoptosis-related markers were assessed, and jejunal transcriptomic profiling was also performed. Supplementing with YAM improved villus architecture and enhanced intestinal antioxidant properties, manifested as increased total antioxidant capacity and reduced malondialdehyde levels. At the molecular level, YAM activated the Keap-1/Nrf2/HO-1 pathway and upregulated the expression of antioxidant-related genes, including sup